Jan. 23, 09
Hello Norris + List, cc Sadiq + Lawrence,
thanks for your post. Just wanted to note that I'm fully aware of Fichtel & Sach's "French Connection". Sachs bought a controlling interest in Huret in 1980, and was in turn bought by Mannesmann in 1987. Mannesmann sold the bicycle division to SRAM in 1997, not the early 90's. I didn't want to get into that im my reply to Sadiq, as I had the impression that his post was mainly about getting the requisite parts.
More at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://de.wikipedia.org/
http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/
Greets
Kai Hilbertz Munich, Germany
On 23.01.2009, at 02:08, Norris Lockley wrote:
> The Sachs New Success group was French in origin...it is just that
> Sachs, t
> he German firm, had bought out the company some years ago...only to
> sell it
> on to SRAM in the early 90s.
>
> The derailleurs were made in the former Huret factories in France,
> the s
> uperb hubs and freewheels - Sachs never produced a cassette version
> of t
> he road hub - were made by Maillard in Normandy, but the chainset
> was produ
> ced by Campagnolo..their Chorus model.
>
> The brake stirrups were made by Modolo in Italy, and there is still
> some de
> bate who made the Ergo-type 8-speed brake and gear levers, if you go
> for th
> e later models. Some rumours have it that Sachs actually
> manufactured the l
> evers for Campagnolo. The chains were, of course, the famous French-
> manufac
> tured SEDIS.
>
> The French company ZEFAL bought the rights to many of the Huret and
> Maillar
> d parts in the early 2000s, and in cooperation launched under the
> Stronglig
> ht brand about three groupsets, The top range one introduced a
> cassette hub
> , probably based on the system for the former Sachs New Success ATB
> groupse
> t, but employing titanium sprockets, that had been treated with a
> nitride c
> oataing to provide longevity.
>
> If you are ever in Normandy, around Dieppe, then take a visit down
> to Inche
> ville, the home of Maillard's main manufacturing base. The whole
> town revol
> ved around the Maillard company which owned vast factories there.
> Even the
> main street was named after the founder of the company. I was there
> at the
> time when SRAM had decided to close down manufacturing. The CGT -
> France
> 's communist-led trade union had taken over most of the main factory
> and
> administrative block and plackarded the outside walls . There were
> sit-ins,
> strikes and demonstrations, but SRAM still went ahead and
> transferred manu
> facturing/out-sourcing to the far-east and Ireland. They only kept
> the hub
> gear factory at Sweinfurt in Germany.
>
>
> I have several Sachs New Success-equipped bikes...the quality is
> very high.
>
>
> Norris Lockley, Settle UK=0A=0A=0A